Cochlear Implants and Meningitis in Children

Cochlear implants are small, complex electronic devices that provide a sense of sound to persons who are deaf or severely hard of hearing, allowing them to hear. Children born deaf who receive implants can learn to speak. Implant recipients wear an apparatus that includes a microphone and signal processor behind the ear. The processor sends a signal through intact skin to the implant, which is surgically placed in the mastoid. Electrodes from the implant travel through the mastoid air cells and middle ear into the inner ear, where they wind inside the cochlea. Inside the cochlea, impulses from the electrodes directly stimulate the auditory nerve, bypassing the need for functioning hair cells. As of 2002, nearly 60,000 people worldwide had received cochlear implants, including 10,000 children and 13,000 adults in the United States. In the United States, implants may be placed in children as young as 12 months. The cost is $60,000 for the device, surgery and training to use the device.